Category Archives: Personal Branding

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had at least a couple of days of relaxation.

I can’t say I ever really set New Year resolutions because I know I will never be able to keep to them. This year however I have set a broad goal. To simply become more active online again. Last year I received a number of tweets and DM’s from people asking where I had gone and why I stopped blogging. It wasn’t intentional; I just struggled to find the time to do it justice.

I came across this post online ‘Competing for Summer Internships, Using a Twitter Contest’ it was posted in the NY Times in late march and explains how Campbell Mithun an American Advertising Agency used Twitter to find their summer interns and then once they had their top 32 they interviewed them on skype.

I thought it was a great concept – they asked them to use hashtag #L13 and named it ‘Lucky 13’. They had 13 days to give 13 reasons why they should be chosen and contestants got really creative, doing videos, audio, interactive posts etc. A fantastic idea for an increasingly digital company to find talent that already uses and understands the digital world.

Although it may not work for all companies it is definitely showing the potential having a great personal brand online has in getting you the job or internship you want. One of my favourite quotes from the article is “For the first time, everything was out in the open; they knew who their competition was,” Ms. Fischer said, which led to the applicants “stepping up their game.” And it’s so true. The article also mentioned they had double the applications from the year before and the quality was great. No longer are you trying to glorify your years stint that you did packing shelves in the supermarket or trying to beef up a resume when you haven’t had your first break yet.

Here in Australia, I think this approach works particularly well, as universities in Australia don’t tend to be ‘ranked’ and everywhere I read companies seem to be becoming less caught up on where you studied and the grades you got and more interested in what you have done and how passionate you are. Having an online personal brand allows you to show that. So instead of sending a CV in you can link to your website/blog and social networking sites instead.

I think the other thing to take away from this is also that it is never too early to start. Get used to using social networks professionally now, start a blog – make the commitment to be building your ‘online resume’ now so that when the right opportunity comes around, it doesn’t look like you just started to get the job. This is especially important for people that want to work in Marketing, Advertising, Media etc where a growing portion of the industry is now focussing their efforts online and seeing digital as the way forward – even if you are looking for a entry level position you will need to show you understand the basic of the digital world.

Even for those not in these industries it is important though. Next week I am working in Brisbane at a media140 event focussing on Science Communication. It’s focus will be on how Scientists and Science communicators can use social technologies to communicate accurately to a wide audience. So think it’s important for everyone to learn how to communicate effectively online in the digital world and social networks are a great place to start.

As many of you know I decided to go to university last year to get my degree and have written before about how shocked Iv’e been about the apparent ignorance of new university students when it comes to their online presence. As a point of reference I class new university students as those coming straight from high school with no ‘real life/work experience’. It’s one thing that many students don’t know what a blog even is, which is fine if you don’t have a reason to have one but more importantly is the lack of awareness of the privacy issues associated with their favourite social networking sites. Hardly any students I have asked knew about customising their privacy settings in Facebook or the dangers of adding everyone that requests an invite. So just how important is it for people to be aware of these types of things? Should it be part of the curriculum for students in high school or college/university?

It’s hard to avoid the thousands of blogs posts are articles out there explaining how we are living in an increasingly digital world and with a large portion of the 15 – 25 year old portion on facebook and online in general I think it’s important to ensure they know the long term consequences of what they post online. Here are some of the main reasons I think justify why all young adults should take a class in online etiquette and in this post social networking in particular.

Once on the web, you have no control over it

You all hear about those videos, pictures and posts that are one minute innocently (or sometimes not so innocently) posted online only to go viral for the world to see. Now it’s one thing to post your house party as an open event on facebook (see Corey for an example) or lose a little bit of dignity when a video you would rather forget about makes the news (like this girl) but there are more serious repercussions like being tagged in a photo from that awesome festival the day you were suppose to be off work sick (like this guy). Just think about it, you spend months posting posts on your wall about how you are hung over at work or so bored you had a two hour lunch when the boos was out – you apply for a new job, why would an employer hire you if they see your work attitude?

Once on the web, always on the web

There is no denying it. Once something is online people share it, that’s often especially true of the things you wish nobody saw. Be careful what you post, it might just come back one day to haunt you.

Um what is she wearing!?

That sexy bikini shot may make you popular with those creepy people on facebook that email you telling you how hot you are but when it comes to trying to make a good impression, for example to an employer that same photo is likely to see you overlooked no matter how perfect the job is for you. Be careful with the photos you show, nobody wants to hire someone who doesn’t look professional and nobody wants to date someone when there seems to be photographic evidence of you having kissed every guy in the state.

You are going on holiday huh, oh look there is your address!

Posting your address or even your phone number is very risky! Don’t think it’s just your friends that can see it, if they are your friends they know your address so don’t post it online! If you post you and your family are going on holiday, then you might as well post ‘here is my address, my house can be robbed between January 31st and February 22nd when we will get back about 5pm. P.S dog is at grandmas so you won’t be disturbed’. Think about what you are sharing and for that matter be careful about the information those 3rd party apps ask you for!

Students have to realise that in this digital world it’s not just employers looking at your profile (and those creepy spammers), don’t disregard university admissions having a look too!

So what is the golden rule I think everyone should follow?

If you don’t want your mother, employer or the person it’s about to see it – THEN DON’T POST IT!

It’s interesting listening to the differences in opinion between those who have a blog and actively manage their online presence and those who still post drunken photos on facebook. Being at university, I have never seen the divide so evident. Many people I have talked to just don’t see why they should waste their time with a blog and be careful about what they say on Facebook, they have set all the privacy settings up after all . . .

I therefore thought this would be a good opportunity to share some of the reasons I have for maintaining my online presence.

Owning a blog/website

I own two personal websites my blog www.loukmedia.com and my website www.louisegriffiths.com, one acts as a blog and the other as an online resume. Here are some of the reasons I take the time to update them:

A blog allows you to give your opinion on topics of relevance and in return get some great feedback and points of view you hadn’t thought of from people who comment, tweet and facebook in response to your blog posts.

A blog gives you something you can put on your resume which showcases your ability and passions much better than any resume can on its own!

There no better way to show your understanding, not just on the topic you write about but about social media and the importance of the internet as a whole than to be a part of it.

Blogging makes you think about your topic, it makes you do research and be involved in the online community. It forces you to keep up to date with news things in your field.

It allows you to establish yourself, prove yourself and position yourself within the community.

Someone looking to hire may remember or come across your blog and be interested in contacting you.

Having a copy of your resume online allows you to send potential employees a link whether it be on their website or through twitter etc without the hassle of getting an email address to send an attachment or posting a hard copy.

Being in the marketing industry, it also allows me to practice writing a fundamental skill for any good marketer.

It’s enjoyable and I talk to some great people through it!

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

Facebook is great to add those who you see as mentors or respect in your industry, just remember to send a message with your invite explaining why you are adding them. All it takes is a little bit of self control in terms of what you post and being careful about which contacts can see what. Remember the golden rule: Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your parents, employer or potential employers to see, no matter how safe you think your privacy settings are! It’s a great way to also keep up to date with companies you are interested in through fan pages.

Twitter is often my uplink to what’s going on. I can quickly skim through and see what kind of things are going on. It’s the go to place for articles and blog posts as people are always recommending good reads. Get involved and soon your followers will start RT’ing your posts and opinions!

LinkedIn should be the number one thing anyone should set up TODAY! In an increasingly online world an up to date and well presented LinkedIn profile is your portal to a large array of job vacancies. Don’t wait until you are looking for a job, start adding people now, getting those recommendations and joining groups. When the time comes, your profile won’t look like it was just started yesterday.

The one key piece of advice though is to NOT start a blog if you are not going to update it. There is no use to a personal blog that hasn’t been updated in over a year. If you don’t think you have the time, then instead try submitting posts on sites like ezine articles and commenting on others peoples blogs instead.

The new year is the perfect time to get rid of all the clutter and organise yourself for the year ahead. I tried to do this last week before going on a road trip up the east coast by removing everything from my wardrobes at home and getting rid of stuff I don’t use. Unfortunately it was really hot and after managing to finally get everything out, I was too hot, tired and bothered to actually de-clutter and everything just ended up all over the floor.

Luckily it’s a little easier to de-clutter and organise my online self. So here is my plan for a clutter free and organised online presence in 2011.

Facebook

Getting rid of people I don’t talk to is fine and deleting those messages I keep getting from people I don’t know clears my inbox.

I will mostly be focussing on all those applications. All those old applications I don’t even remember ‘allowing to access my contact details’ are going, anyone who posts on my wall through applications that send me virtual flowers or cows are all being blocked. You may like playing them, in which case don’t delete them but I urge anyone to go through all the ones they have accepted and delete any they don’t use. They just spam me and my wall.

Make sure my info, work and interests are still all up to date.

Twitter

I don’t know about you but I hate it when someone follows me, I look at their profile and they seem ok with lots of followers. Then later that week you realise that once you follow them back they unfollow you to inflate their follower/following ratio. So I will be using http://www.justunfollow.com to find those people that don’t add anything of value to me.

Those that also just push out get quick schemes or ‘special deals’, you are all being unfollowed!

It’s also a good time to check your lists and make sure they are still all usable or relevant.

I will also be updated my bio and background.

LinkedIn

Simply put it’s always a good idea to go through ‘people you may know’ and add anyone you have worked with. I also will be checking my profile is up to date.

Email

Other than trying to get through the sheer amount of emails I have I will be focussing on all those newsletters I have signed up for and all the google alerts I get. If I don’t get time to read them, or don’t feel the need to read them then it’s time to unsubscribe!

Websites

I have two main websites that I use for my online presence; this blog and my website www.louisegriffiths.com. They serve two very different purposes. Louisegriffiths.com acts more like an online Resume, detailing who I am and what I do, whereas this blog is a little less formal and allows me to express my opinions and write about things of interest. Both sites will be getting facelifts, content will be updated and I will be adding videos. It may take a while to get this done, but the changes will be worth it.

Other Online Profiles

I have signed up to so many sites; digg, stumbleupon, technorati, Friend Feed, Brazen Careerist etc. I think it’s time to consolidate a little bit and only focus on those I have to time to update and use.

I will also be streamlining everything through my website www.louisegriffiths.com which will link out to my presence everywhere on the web, including this blog, but don’t worry this blog isn’t going anyway – I like having my blog separate. This should make finding out everything about me much easier to do; especially now since I am gaining more freelance work, it’s an important step forward for me.

So what will you be doing to de-clutter and organise your online presence for the new year?